Admit it. You knew it was only a matter of time before I did something like this. I present to you the first Chiro/Neeketa fiction I have ever seen to my knowledge. I was terribly tempted to have an ambiguous summary and let you guess the pairing but then I figured that if I did that, no one would bother to read it. Of course the blunt Chiro/Nekeeta sign has probably scared off the majority of you by now. Bah. I can't win.

And no, before you ask, I don't have a problem with Jinmay. And I haven't forgotten about her either. Nor have I killed her off in this story either. I'm not completely obvious to the plot and hints of the entire 1st,2nd and 3rd seasons thank you very much. Oh, and to all you people who wanna wail stuff like "U SUX! CHIRO/JINMAY 4EVER!"…..go and read something else. Seriously, shut up. You make yourselves look dumb to the world and that'll be a real shame…

This is a one-shot. ONE. SHOT. For some reason, people have the habit of saying things like "update soon." I'm a little tired of it. If I ever write a chaptered story I generally write a A/N stating so in the first chapter.

Comprehend all that? Good. We're gonna work out fine.

Painless. That what he liked to think of it as. Completely and utterly devoid of all sensation. Of course, in reality, he knew better than that. It had ripped them apart, inch by inch, meter by meter until the engine oil had run freely with a rust-tinted red.

She had been young, too young, the softness of pink coating her frame and causing him to lean back and admire her whenever her body twisted through the sunlight. She was a thing of grace and majesty with every gesture, her natural kindness flowing into every word she spoke. But she could be quick too, her fierce face sharpened by the moonlight as she rode the atmosphere out into battle. There were no real rules governing her personality.

Or his either, come to think of it. But then he has always needed the gentle hand of another to guide him into being a better person whether it had been Antauri or Nova or even Jinmay.

"What are your favourite flowers?"

He had been surprised by the question, yes, but it was a pleasant surprise rather than an awkward one.

"I dunno. I like all of them, I guess…"

She had said that she liked forget-me-nots best of all. Because they reminded her of hope and they had a strange name that she liked the ring of.

"Why do they make you think of hope?"

She had glanced at him solemnly then, before looking down firmly as a blush eased it's way onto her face.

"Because the first time I saw what hope really was…it's real meaning, how beautiful and kind it was to those who really needed it…was when I looked into your eyes for the first time."

Ears flat back, she grinned sheepishly.

"You've got nice blue eyes Chiro."

And they had left it at that.

She had been so excited as well…it was the first time she had ever visited Shuggazoom City and he had been determined to teach her how to drive a motorbike after seeing the baffled wonder stealing across her face. Her planet was primitive in many ways and any sort of technological advancement was as breath-taking as magic to her child-like eyes. She drank it all in, how the handles fitted into the snug hold of her paws as his hands gently shaped out the hollow connected to her wrist. And then, they flew along the tarmac, wind cradling their merriment as his warm arms guided her along the journey, never once leaving her slender waist.

He had never thought she'd go so quickly. Or so soon. He always imagined the end would happen in a the form of a weapon and a blood…she would go down like the courageous warrior she was hidden beneath her mask of steel.

He was right about the blood.

"Do you think you could ever love another girl apart from Jinmay?"

She had been troubled back then, he could tell by the way her eyes were carefully manpowered to the side and her head thrown back in the shadow of an over-hanging tree branch.

He sighed.

"No, I don't think so."

The breeze whistled past their serious forms, nursing her sorrow in all it's unbearable annoy.

"I understand, she's a very special girl…"

He head bowed, completely submissive to the emotional tide unfolding within her.

"And that's why I had to let her go."

The sadness was evident in his tone, the quiet reminder of longing in his voice.

"I'll always care about her…she's the first girl I ever loved and she'll always have a special place in my heart that no one can ever replace…it was stupid really, we were both too young…"

There was more to it than that, she could tell but she knew better than to ask. She recognised how much it has cost him to tell her it the first place. The rest of the division was between Jinmay and Chiro and it always would be. But that didn't stop her from trying to heal him.

He had choked himself to sleep in her arms that day, his gut-wrenching sobs stretching her heart strings to their wavering limits. She swore to never make him cry again.

But now she could never make him happy.

"I want forget-me-nots on my grave."

She had never stated this request to him in words, more like asking him with her eyes, the most expressive feature she possessed. Those gleaming in the dust of candlelight next to that Italian restaurant Nova had dragged them to. She had been enthralled with the curved length of the spaghetti and the way the meatballs arched through the air with a playful toss of her paws. And her eyes had been laughing the whole time, expressing a wonderful glee that even Jinmay had been incapable of showing.

He had never seen anything so beautiful. And now he never would.

Now that same beauty was gone, stuffed out because of a thirteen year old school girl who forgot to look both ways and a dodgy bump in the road.

It didn't seem fair that she should die so…so…normally. She had deserved much, much better. A hero's demise, one that could have been written into history with pride and care.

She had screaming and gone flying in such a ghastly manner, the kind of flying a bird experiences after being torn through the wing with a hunter's bullet. She had crashed pitifully, her limbs tangled together and interlocked with the growing rivet of blood pooling around her head. She looked for all the world like a broken doll.

It had taken him six minutes to realise that the screaming that had continued to tear his life apart after she had jerked and lay still was echoing out of his mouth.

So now, here he was. Laying down forget-me-nots on a small clump of marble, her name lovingly carved onto it's surface with her brother's tear-soaked claws. A labour of love. One he both recognised and respected.

Tomorrow he will find a mountain of forget-me-nots and spread them round her resting place, a duvet, a pillow, a bed of hope too late in the making. But today he will stand, stare and cry with no one to wrap their arms around him except Antauri who understands the pain of being broken by the people you love, when you have shared your life with them in the most intimate way possible.

But next year, Chiro will return with more forget-me-nots and rebuilt the broken bed. And the year after that. And the year after that. As long as he lives.

And he will never forget. He will never stop loving. He will never cease hoping even if it's so goddamn hard so see why he should right now. He knows that he will feel the whisper of her tongue on his cheek one day and be enfolded in her embrace of death….and maybe it will be in the climax of a battle or maybe it will be a normal day in a hospital bed or at the bottom of a flight of stairs but she will welcome him into paradise.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Forget-me-nots to hope. Blue eyes to love.

He couldn't believe it didn't hurt the way he thought it would. But that was probably because he never forgot. Ever.

He looked up.

The sky was blue.

A/N: WHAT THE HELL.